It has been the practice in the past to try to measure the finish of containers by locating the container on a rotating bottom supporting plate while locating a feeler gauge with its actuator contacting the rim of the container. This system would not result in consistent and reproduceable readings on containers that were produced under the same conditions for various reasons, such as, the lack of consistently formed containers with bottoms that were flat and at exact right angles with the vertical axis of the container. The limits that were required to be sure of acceptable containers would not necessarily provide assurance that the containers were being produced essentially identical on machines that were of the multiple section or multiple mold type. It is nearly essential that the glass container forming machines be of both the multiple section type, as well as of multiple cavity type in order to be economically competitive. It is necessary to be able to gauge the finish of the containers to be certain that they will be free of sealing defects that may occur because of too great a deviation in the maximum and minimum finish height of the container.
Other finish gauges would use the top of the finish as the datum from which orientation of the container would be subject and would result in inconsistent gauging of the "saddle" of the container finish.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a 360.degree. inspection of the container finish "saddle" by the use of a finish ring to give a positive location.
It is a further object of the invention to use one thread of the container as the locating surface of the container rather than the top of the finish.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a finish gauge which will accept different size finish rings, can check containers whether made of glass, plastic or metal, and where the data can be down loaded into a computer.
Other and further objects will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the annexed sheets of drawing.